Daimler CEO Ola Kaellenius said on Wednesday that he is not preparing to pull Mercedes out of Formula One. Earlier this week Autocar and Race Fans reported that a decision about whether the constructor would leave the sport.<\/p>\n
Asked at the German Auto Industry annual reception in Berlin when asked if Mercedes were planning to leave F1, he replied \u201cnot true.\u201d The publication had claimed that the decision was to be made at a board meeting on 12th<\/sup> of February.<\/p>\n The manufacturer has won the last six successive drivers and constructors’ titles, with Britain’s Lewis Hamilton chasing his seventh this year in the final season before a major rules overhaul. This comes as negotiations on the second phase of 2021 overall is set to begin as the teams and Liberty Media are still negotiating the commercial \u2018Concorde Agreement\u2019.<\/p>\n The carmaker warned this month that its earnings had halved in 2019 and it faced further charges of up to 1.5 billion euros related to diesel pollution. Autocar cited ‘high-placed sources’ suggesting that the decision to leave F1 was under serious consideration in Stuttgart.<\/p>\n However, it is clear the manufacturer is committed long term to the sport having signed an engine supply deal with McLaren. F1 CEO and team principal Toto Wolff said at the end of last year that Daimler’s future involvement would rely on the team making financial sense.<\/p>\n Adding, \u201cI think I am the one who is responsible for the motor racing activities, but I’m also the first one to acknowledge that in times when the auto industry is changing that all activities need to be looked at.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFormula One and motor racing generally is an activity that we believe is powerful, our core DNA. The first-ever Mercedes was a race car. I think we need to become more efficient; I think we need to provide a solid business case.\u201d<\/p>\n It has been known that Mercedes were looking at its future in the sport, but all the signs suggest that they will stay in the sport. Speaking to Motorsport.com, Wolff said \u201cEverything indicates that we will stay. But it’s not a given. We are in the middle of discussing the new Concorde Agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn connection with this – and independently of it – we are discussing the development of the automobile and its effects on sport.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes have dismissed the latest rumours over there futures in the sport. While the Englishman has been quietly preparing to go for his seventh world title, there have been reports since the start of the year his future with Mercedes isn\u2019t certain.<\/p>\n Various stories over recent days have claimed that talks between Hamilton and Mercedes over a new contract had stalled overpay, with the inference being that such an impasse could prompt the Englishman to switch to Ferrari from 2021.<\/p>\n However, taking to Instagram he dismissed any talk of a clash over contracts, as he confirmed that discussions had not even started with Mercedes boss Toto Wolff.<\/p>\n Adding \u201cFYI Toto and I have not even spoken about contract yet. Nothing is being negotiated currently, papers making up stories.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Racing Point is set to be rebranded once again in 2021 as Aston Martin, following a new investment deal between the British manufacturer and the teams’ owner Lawrence Stroll.<\/p>\n Following a board meeting on Thursday, it was announced the consortium led by the Canadian billionaire has brought a 16.7% stake for \u00a3182m. In filings that were lodged with the London Stock Exchange on Friday morning that detailed the investment, it was made clear that an \u2018enhanced\u2019 F1 involvement for Aston Martin was viewed as essential.<\/p>\n The documents said that as part of this: \u201cAston Martin Lagonda has entered into a legally binding termsheet under which the Racing Point F1 team will become the Aston Martin F1works team with effect from the 2021 season. This agreement is for a 10-year initial term and Aston Martin Lagonda will receive an economic interest in the team.\u201d<\/p>\n The agreement between the two will begin next year and the sponsorship deal will last until 2025. Aston\u2019s current arrangement with Red Bull will end, however they will continue to work on t he Valkyrie hypercar will continue until the cars are delivered.<\/p>\n Racing Point has Sergio Perez under a long term contract to the team, with Lawrence Stroll\u2019s son Lance also set to remain at the outfit for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n The team also has a long term engine deal with Mercedes, this looks set to be expanded into closer technical ties with the German car manufacturer in the future.<\/p>\n Stroll said: \u201cOn completion of the \u00a3500m of fundraising I look forward to working with the Board and management team in Aston Martin Lagonda to review and improve each aspect of the company’s operations and marketing; to continue to invest in the development of new models and technologies and to start to rebalance production to prioritise demand oversupply.\u201d<\/p>\n Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer said: \u201cMr Stroll brings strong and proven expertise in both automotive and luxury brands more widely which we believe will be of significant benefit to Aston Martin Lagonda. We have also announced plans to leverage a new motorsport collaboration with Racing Point to enhance the execution of the plan.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The FIA says it will continue monitoring the coronavirus outbreak in China and will take “any action required” around its events. Yesterday, Chinese health officials said 170 people have died from the virus with 7,711 cases confirmed.<\/p>\n Shanghai is due to hold the Chinese Grand Prix in mid-April. The statement said, \u201cFollowing the coronavirus epidemic that broke out in China at the beginning of the year, the FIA is closely monitoring the evolving situation with relevant authorities and its Member Clubs, under the direction of FIA Medical Commission President, Professor Gerard Saillant.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe FIA will evaluate the calendar of its forthcoming races and, if necessary, take any action required to help protect the global motorsport community and the wider public.\u201d<\/p>\n Other sports have already suspended events in China, including The World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, have been moved back by a year to March 2021, while Chinese football authorities have suspended matches indefinitely.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The UK leaves the EU at 23:00GMT tonight, with Liberty Media and F1 teams, are braced for change, at the end of the year. Freedom of movement will end and if a no-deal on goods and services is agreed by the end of 2020.<\/p>\n The first issue is the border, teams cross what will be the external EU\/UK border multiple times a week with staff and goods. With the UK planning to diverge from the rules of the single market, the current combined workforce of teams in the UK is 60:40.<\/p>\n It is also going to impose the need to return to the so-called ATA notebooks, a document that allows companies to make a temporary export of a product to a non-EU country, and the subsequent reimportation of the merchandise, without having to pay the tariffs and import taxes.<\/p>\n Each truck that leaves the English factories in the future to attend a Grand Prix must be inspected at EU customs to control a list of incoming goods and their corresponding value, as well as those returning again, to Control possible contraband inside trailers. Parones, delays and difficulty to move quickly from one race to another in the races in Europe, in short.<\/p>\n The other issue could be the devaluation of the currency, which could cost of the sport fall. However, with next years budget cap it could give the teams more money to spend.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Williams is the latest team to announce their 2020 launch plans with the team confirming a \u201cdigital-only launch\u201d ahead of Barcelona Testing. The Oxfordshire based team said it will release images of the FW43 08:00 GMT two days before the start of testing.<\/p>\n The teams line up this season will be George Russell and Nicholas Latifi, who has replaced Robert Kubica in the driver line-up.<\/p>\n The team last year was set back by a number of delays, which lead to them missing the first two days of testing. That set the tone for a miserable season that had yielded just a single point and saw tech chief Paddy Lowe depart the team.<\/p>\n Williams has been tweaking its technical structure in a bid to avoid another year at the bottom of F1’s running order, with it recently adding ex-Red Bull engineer David Worner as chief designer and former Renault man Jonathan Carter as his deputy.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Next week is going to be dominated by the dates for the remaining car launches. Most teams appear not to be doing flashy launches instead going for unveiling\u2019s either in Barcelona, online or at the track. We should get an idea of the timetables by the end of the week.<\/p>\n The news agenda will be set by that as the drivers start to return from the winter break. Lewis Hamilton has already given his first interview of the year, so when we start getting the other big driver interviews it becomes a case of cutting through the spin.<\/p>\n The week should be rather quiet from the teams, but the drivers will as the focus shift towards the spin. Testing is high on the agenda and the fact is the simulator can only tell you so much.<\/p>\n Obviously, the sport is continuing to monitor the Australian Bushfires and coronavirus, these are more background issues. While we have the regulation and sporting regulations agreed, the next phase will be the team’s commitment to the sport and share of revenues. This I think is unlikely this will be easy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The latest news and analysis behind the headlines from across Formula One, exploring the day’s events from a global perspective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[46,47,158,198,316,361,400,401,445,456,481,570,649,658,799,816,1143,1298,1455,1617,1618,1808,1816,1843,1986,2031,2068,2079,2149,2152],"class_list":["post-7291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-analysis","tag-46","tag-47","tag-andy-palmer","tag-aston-martin","tag-brexit","tag-car-launch","tag-chinese-gp","tag-chinese-grand-prix","tag-concorde-agreement","tag-coronavirus","tag-daimler","tag-driver-contract","tag-eu","tag-european-union","tag-future-of-f1","tag-gerard-saillant","tag-lawrence-stroll","tag-mercedes","tag-ola-kallenius","tag-racing-point","tag-racing-point-mercedes","tag-sergio-perez","tag-shanghai","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-the-week-ahead","tag-toto-wolff","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-williams","tag-williams-mercedes"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7291\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Hamilton dismisses rumours about future<\/h2>\n
Racing Point ties up with Aston Martin<\/h2>\n
F1 monitoring Coronavirus<\/h2>\n
The impact of Brexit<\/h2>\n
Williams announce launch plans<\/h2>\n
The Week Ahead<\/h2>\n